Modern Systems Analysis and Design, Chapters 1-6

Tangible benefit

A benefit derived from the creation of an information system that can be measured in dollars and with certianty

Top-down planning

A generic information systems planning methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding of the information systems needs for the entire organization. Projects identified by top management or by a diverse steering committee.

Internet

A large, world-wide network of networks that use a common protocol to communicate with each other

Objective Statements

A series of statements that express an organization's qualitative and quantitative goals for reaching a desired future position

Systems Development Methodology

A standard process followed in an organization to conduct all the steps necessary to analyze, design, implement and maintain information systems. To develop and support information systems

Mission Statement

A statement that makes it clear what business a company is in

Joint Application Design (JAD)

A structured process in which users, managers, and analysts works together for several days in a series of intensive meetings to specify or review systems requirements

Break-even analysis

A type of cost-benefit analysis to identify at what point (if ever) benefits equals cost

Corporate Strategic Planning

An ongoing process that defines the mission, objectives, and strategies of an organization

Information Systems Planning

An orderly means of assessing the information needs of an organization and defining the systems, databases, and technologies that will best satisfy those needs

Business-to-business

Electronic commerce between business partners such as suppliers and intermediaries

Business-to-consumer

Electronic commerce between businesses and consumers

Business-to-employee

Electronic commerce between businesses and their employees

Electronic Commerce

Internet-based communication to support day-to-day business activities

Managed Reuse

Is a more structured, more expensive, mode of managing software reuse. With managed reuse, the development, sharing, and adoption of reusable assets is mandated

Facilitated Reuse

Not required to practice reuse but encouraged. Organization makes tools and techniques available that enable the development and sharing of reusable assets

Disruptive technologies

Technologies that enable that breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes

Time value of money

The concept that money available today is worth more than the same amount tomorrow

Present Value

The current value of a future cash flow

Project Management

a controlled process that involves the 4 phases of initiating, planning, executing, and closing down a project

Network Diagram

a diagram that depicts project tasks and interrelationships. The ordering of tasks is shown by connecting tasks

Request for Proposal

a document provided to vendors that asks them to prepare hardware and system software that will meet the requirements of a new system - a way to collect more information about system software, its performance, and its cost

Gantt Chart

a graphical representation of a project that shows each task as a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to its time for completion

Object class

a logical grouping of objects that have the same (or similar) attributes and behaviors (methods)

Project

a planned undertaking of related activities to reach an objective that has a beginning and an end

Feasibility Study

a study that determines if the proposed information system makes sense for the organization from an economic and operational standpoint

Enterprise Resource Planning

a system that integrates individual traditional business functions into a series of modules so that a single transaction occurs seamlessly within a single information system rather than several separate systems

Deliverable

an end product of an SDLC phase

Rational Unified Process (RUP)

an object oriented systems development methodology. Establishes four phases of development: inception, elaboration, construction, and transition. Each phase is organized into a number of separate iterations

Iteration

completing a full systems development life cycle

Information Systems Analysis and Design

complex organizational process whereby computer based information systems are developed and maintained

CASE tools

computer aided software engineering tools - software tools that provide automated support for some portion of the systems development process

Slack time

includes nodes that are not on the critical path, that can be delayed without delaying the final completion of the project, that allow the project manager some flexibility in scheduling

Ad Hoc approach

individuals are free to find and develop reusable assets on their own

Application software

is computer software designed to support specific organizational functions and processes (inventory management, payroll, market analysis) an important result of systems analysis and design

Techniques

particular processes that an analyst will follow to help ensure work is well thought out, complete and comprehensible to others that provide support for a wide range of tasks.

Logical Design

the part of the design phase of the SDLC in which all functional features of the system chosen for development in analysis are described independently of any computer platform Makes sure the system functions as intended - business aspects of the system

intangible benefit

A benefit derived from the creation of an information system that cannot be easily measured in dollars or with certainty

one-time cost

A cost associated with a project start-up and development or system start-up

Tangible cost

A cost associated with an information system that can be measured in dollars and with certainty

Intangible cost

A cost associated with an information system that cannot be easily measured in terms of dollars or with certainty

Recurring cost

A cost resulting from the ongoing evolution and use of a system

Project Scope Statement

A document prepared for the customer that describes what the project will deliver and outlines generally at a high level all work required to complete the project

Bottom-up planning

A generic information systems planning methodology that identifies and defines IS development projects based upon solving operational business problems or taking advantage of some business opportunity. Project initiatives stemming from managers, business units, or the development group

Baseline Project Plan

A major outcome and deliverable from the project initiation and planning phase that contains the best estimate of a project's scope, benefits, costs, risks, and resource requirements

Walkthrough

A peer group review of any product created during the systems development process

Technical feasibilty

A process of assessing the development organization's ability to construct a proposed system

Economic feasibility

A process of identifying the financial benefits and costs associated with a development project

Incremental commitment

A strategy in systems analysis and design in which the project is reviewed after each phase and continuation of the project is re-justified

What are some reasons to initiate planning phase of the SDLC

Business opportunity, requests to deal with problems in current procedures, the desire to perform additional tasks, or the realization that information technology could be used to capitalize on an existing opportunity Corporate objectives New products...additional revenue Reduce costs Consolidation from mergers Government regulations Changes in business practices Vendor changes Technology changes

Advantages of Network Diagrams

Can represent how completion times vary for activities. Composed of circles or rectangles representing activities and connecting arrows showing required work flows. Has the ability to use probability estimates in determining critical paths and deadlines

Differences between Gantt chart and Network Diagram

Gantt charts visually show the duration of tasks, whereas a network diagram visually shoes the sequence dependencies between tasks. Gantt charts visually show the time overlap of tasks, whereas a network diagram does not show time overlap but does show which tasks could be done in parallel. Some Gantt charts can visually show slack time available within an earliest start and latest finish duration. A network diagram shows this by data within activity rectangles

Designed Reuse

Most expensive and extensive approach - in addition to mandating reuse and measuring its effectiveness, this approach takes another step of mandating the assets to be designed for reuse as they are being designed for specific applications. Focus more on developing reusable assets then finding existing ones

Affinity Clustering

The process of arranging planning a matrix information so that clusters of information with a predetermined level or type of affinity are placed next to each other on a matrix report

legal and contractual feasibility

The process of assessing potential legal and contractual ramifications due to the construction of a system

Operational feasibility

The process of assessing the degree to which a proposed system solves business problems or takes advantage of business opportunity

Schedule feasibility

The process of assessing the degree to which the potential time frame and completion dates for all major activities within a project meet organizational deadlines and constraints for affecting change

Political feasibilty

The process of evaluating how key stakeholders within the organization view the proposed system

Discount rate

The rate of return used to compute the present value of future cash flows

Business Process Re-engineering

The search for and implementation of, radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services

Critical Path Scheduling

a scheduling technique whose order and duration of a sequence of task activities directly affect the completion date of a project, example: network diagramming

Project Charter

a short document prepared for the customer during the project initiation that describes what the project will deliver and outlines generally at a high level all work required to complete the project

Project Manager

a systems analyst with a diverse set of skills: management, leadership, technical, conflict management, and customer relationship - who is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, and closing down a project

Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

a technique that uses optimistic, pessimistic, and realistic time estimates to calculate the expected time for a particular task

Project workbook

an online or hard-copy repository for all project correspondence, inputs, outputs, deliverables, procedures, and standards that is used for performing project audits, orienting new team members, communicating with management and customers, identifying future projects, and performing post-project reviews (diagrams, charts, system descriptions)

Resources

any person, group of people, piece of equipment, or material used in accomplishing an activity

Methodologies

comprehensive, multi-step approaches to systems development that will guide work and influence the quality of the final information system that are consistent with its general management style of a organization

Software

most obvious end product of the SDLC

closed-ended questions

questions in interviews that ask those responding to choose from among a set of specified responses

Analysis

second phase of the SDLC in which system requirements are studied and structured. Includes requirements determination and studying the requirements and structure them according to their interrelationships and eliminate redundancies The output of this phase = description of the alternative solution recommended

OOAD

system development methodologies and techniques based on objects rather than data or processes - often called the third approach to systems development, after the process - oriented and data - oriented approaches

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

systems development methodology created to radically decrease the time needed to design and implement information systems. Relies on extensive user involvement, prototyping, integrated CASE tools, and code generators System developers and end users work together jointly in real time to develop systems

Total slack time

the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the completion of the project

Free slack time

the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following tasks

Maintenance

the final phase in the SDLC in which an information system is systematically repaired and improved Make the changes that users ask for and modify the system to reflect changing business conditions

Project Closedown

the final phase of the project management process that focuses on bringing a project to an end (natural or unnatural end)

Planning

the first phase in the SDLC in which an organization's total information system needs are identified, analyzed, prioritized, and arranged.

Project initiation

the first phase of the project management process in which activities are performed to assess the size, scope, and complexity of the project and to establish procedures to support later project activities

Implementation

the fourth phase in the SDLC in which the information system is coded, tested, installed, and supported in the organization. The detailed physical specifications are handed over to programmers. Also includes: initial user support, finalization of documentation, training programs are finalized

Physical Design

the part of the design phase of the SDLC in which the logical specifications of the systems from logical design are transformed into technology-specific details from which all programming and system construction can be accomplished

Outsourcing

the practice of turning over responsibility for some to all of an organization's information systems applications and operations to an outside firm

value chain analysis

the process of analyzing an organization's activities to determine where value is added to products and/or services and the costs incurred for doing so

Work Breakdown Structure

the process of dividing the project into manageable tasks and logically ordering them to ensure a smooth evolution between tasks - some tasks may be performed in parallel, while others must follow a sequential pattern

Inheritance

the property that occurs when entity types or object classes are arranged in a hierarchy and each entity type or object class assumes that attributes and methods of its ancestors. Allows new but related classes to be derived from existing classes

Cloud Computing

the provision of computing resources, including applications, over the internet, so customers do not have to invest in the hardware and software needed to run and maintain the resources

Project planning

the second phase of the project management process that focuses on defining clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project

Critical Path

the shortest time in which a project can be completed

Design

the third phase of the SDLC in which the description of the recommended solution is converted into logical and then physical systems specifications

Project execution

the third phase of the project management process in which the plans created in the prior phases (initiation and planning) are put into action, puts the BPP into action, execution occurs primarily during the analysis, design, and implementation phases

Resue

the use of previously written software resources, especially objects and components, in new applications

Tools

typically computer programs that make it easy to use and benefit from techniques to faithfully follow the guidelines of the overall development methodology

Object

usually correspond to real things an information system deals with. Is a structure that encapsulates (or packages) attributes and methods that operate on those attributes. Is an abstraction of a real-word thing in which data and processes are placed together to model the structure and behavior of the real-world thing

business case

The justification for an information system, presented in terms of the tangible and intangible economic benefits and costs and the technical and organizational feasibility of the proposed system

Competitive Strategy

The method by which an organization attempts to achieve its mission and objectives

Formal System

The official way a system works as described in an organization's documentation

Systems analyst

The organizational role most responsible for the analysis and design of information systems. Primary role - study the problems and needs of an organization in order to determine how people, methods, and information technology can be best combined to bring improvements

SDLC

The traditional methodology used to develop, maintain, and replace information systems

JAD session leader

The trained individual who plans and leads JAD sessions

Electronic data interchange

The use of telecommunications technologies to directly transfer business documents between organizations

Informal system

The way a system actually works